


Jackieboy Man Origins: Chain Letter

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [46]
Category: Jacksepticeye Fandom
Genre: Gen, Possession, accidentally getting super powers from a glitch demon, pre-divorce Chase
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:00:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22200694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: For an Irish web developer, it’s been a long night. A long night that turns into a strange morning when he wakes up in the hospital and no memory of how he got there.
Series: Masks and Maladies [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Jackieboy Man Origins: Chain Letter

**Author's Note:**

> Another origin story, I did one for Silver a while back and I wanted to do one for Jackie.

~::~ 25 Years Later ~::~  


As a young man was dragging himself and his friend back from a haunted, twisted mansion in a half-dead hypnotic stupor, an Irishman was sitting at his computer in the dark early morning. Unseen to him, something in the wires of his computer were waiting, watching him for the slightest mental distraction, a fatigue to help it.

For the man at the computer, it was late. Later than Sean usually liked to be up. Especially in the cabin he lived in with its thin walls and out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, Ireland.

At the moment he was getting a call from his old friend, Chase. Both of them worked as coders and web designers for the same company.

“Look, it’s not that I don’t believe ye,” Sean told him. “It’s just that yer full of shite.”

__ _ “Hey, I did what I could, an’ it’s not workin’,” _ Chase answered, contacting him over the phone.

Sean audibly groaned, “Fine, send it. If it’s because yer wife downloaded another virus again, I will personally come over to Brighton and kill ye and yer computer.”

__ _ “If yer gonna buy me a new computer, then bring it,” _ Chase dared.

Sean groaned, “I’ll tell you when I’m done with it. Prolly gonna be done later in the week. I’m tired as shit.”

With a goodbye and a couple barbed insults, Sean hung up. He was about to shut down his computer and go to bed. Closing up programs until the email from Chase came in.

“Come on,” the Irish man groaned, and against his better judgement opened up Chase’s email and started reading through some of Chase’s notes.

Two paragraphs in though his eyes started to get itchy, and his throat began to feel dry.

“I’m tired,” Sean muttered, not meaning to say it out loud.

__ _ “I’m tired.” _

Sean looked around, trying to find the voice.

__ _ “Tired” _

The Irishman was looking around for his glasses, his eyes tired and having problems focusing. It made it look like the whole monitor was going fuzzy with static.

__ _ “Tried” _

“Ugh,” Sean groaned, scratching at his own throat. “Arrrghhh!”

__ _ “Aren’t you just sooooooo tired?” _

Sean stared at the screen, hazy with static and it seemed to be reflecting his smiling face back at him.

“Ch—” Sean scrambled for the phone. Something was wrong, as if thousands of strings were being tethered to every muscle in his body. “Chase—”

The Irishman’s head hit his desk and then . . . like a stiff marionette puppet being suspended by strings . . . he got back up again.

The next thing Sean became aware of was lying down on a slightly cold surface, with a beeping noise echoing off the walls.

“Ugh,” Sean coughed out, more and more of his body aching by the second. “Am I dead?”

“No, but you’ll wish you were when the guards get back in here.”

Sean startled and saw another of his friends sitting in the chair next to him was one of his friends, and his roommate, Marvin. “Marv, the fook happened to your face.”

Scored down Marvin’s face were long claw marks, stitched to hold the wound closed. Marvin glared at him, looking like he was about to punch him in the face.

“Yah get inta a fight with a cat or somethin’,” Sean tried to joke.

Marvin leaned over him, glaring murderously at the other Irishman, pointing to his own face. “You did this to me?”

“What?” Sean tried to sit up, but found out that he had both hands closely handcuffed to his hospital bed.

“Yah scratched up my like a fookin’ demon cat,” Marvin spat at him. “Ye almost tore yer own throat out, an’ then ye tried to take my eyes out.”

“I didn’t,” Sean tried to defend, but a sinking pit formed in his stomach. As if his body knew what he’d been up to last night, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember a single thing that had happened. The web designer was pretty sure he’d fallen asleep at his desk while working. “I wouldn’t—”

Suddenly, Sean felt like a lump was forming in his throat, and it itched. The urge to reach up and scratch the skin of his throat was eating at him. His brain spiraled into a panic attack, and it felt like his body was physically spinning out of control.

It took Marvin, two nurses, and a doctor to calm Sean down again. Now with Sean knocked out, Marvin was left to think. He’d known Sean for a long time, and the last thing he expected the other man to be, was violent. Marvin was pretty sure Sean didn’t actually have a violent bone in his body. He could get loud and belligerent, but never violent.

But thing Marvin had stumbled upon while entering the cabin, that wasn’t Sean. It had taken everything Marvin had to convince everyone that Sean wouldn’t have purposefully tried to burn the cabin down, or attacked Marvin or the officers. Which got harder when his blood work came back clean as a whistle.

But everyone was letting Sean rest. Sean was still sleeping while Marvin had to think. Yeah, he’d talked Sean out of getting thrown in a cell for arson and attempted murder. But that wouldn’t stop it from happening again.

Desperate for anything to help, Marvin ran out to a store he typically got his candles and magic supplies.

“Hey, Marv,” the girl behind the counter smiled at him, using his stage name since he could count on one hand the people he told his actual name to.

“Hey, Clara, ye still got those weird doll parts?” Marvin was already running towards the back of the shop.

She just stared at him, “Yeah, why? You inta puppets now or somethin?”

Then she got a good look at the scratches on his face, “What the hell, man, what happened ta yer face?”

“If I told you you’d stop me,” he told her, and handed her the money to walk out with his kit.

“Be careful,” she warned him.

“Will do,” he promised, and then rushed back to the hospital, smuggling in his kit back into Sean’s room.

“Okay,” he took a steadying breath, over Sean’s still unconscious body. “This is such a bad idea, but yah can thank me after it works.”

Then Marvin began working, trying to make the doll look as close to what he saw in the cabin. The dark, glowing green eyes, the slit throat, the wraith-like form. Once he was done with the life-sized model, he waited for the nurses to make their rounds and check on Sean. Marvin smiling, having the doll hidden from them in the bathroom. Cause a life-sized model of a guy was a sure fire way to get him supervised in the room at least.

Then Marvin waited for them to leave before setting up the room for his Plan A: exorcise his friend and roommate. If he needed a Plan B, Marvin would burn that bridge when he crossed it.

“Hey, Jackaboy,” Marvin tried to smile. “You awake?”

No answer.

Marvin frowned, then he took out a spellbook, “Good.”

He uttered a quick summoning spell, standing outside the containment spell he’d drawn on the floor. Sean began to convulse and scream, his skin literally buzzing.

Sean’s screams were so loud, the door flew open as a passing nurse came in, “What the fook?”

Then a force of pure static electricity shot out of Sean, as a creature that looked almost exactly like the Irishman still passed out on the hospital bed, except for the gash on his throat. The being of malic and chaos just floated in the air above Sean’s bed.

“Well, well, looks like I found myself a street magician too big fer his own britches,” the creature cackled. The nurse was still at the door, staring at the creature in horror. It smiled back at her.

“Hey, you almost got my friend arrested,” Marvin tried not to show any fear.

“Still got time fer that,” it dismissed.

“Here’s the deal, ye go into this image I made, and I don’t destroy you,” Marvin threatened.

The doppelgänger just cackled, sounding like Sean just with a crackling, static-like tone to it. “An what? Let yah rip me apart, I don’t think so Two-Bit Copperfield.”

“Yer going to do it, or I’ll make yah,” Marvin threatened.

It just laughed again, the very air charging with static electricity, and the creature lightly touched down on the floor, looking at the symbols and lines that were keeping him in. “Yah pay for those magic tricks?”

“None of your business,” Marvin finally started actually getting brave.

It took one of its feet and stubbed out one of the lines, blowing back the power onto Marvin, who flew into the wall.

“Cause, ye got yerself ripped off,” it cackled and moved closer to stand over Marvin’s pain wracked body, the magician slumped against the wall as muscles in his body shook and trembled with electricity.

“When you want ta learn some real tricks, call me,” the thing took its claws and scored a name into Marvin’s arm:  _ ANTI _ . Marvin screamed in pain and watched the cop that had been taking questions early bust in.

Anti looked back at him, standing up and walking back over to Sean’s bed. Marvin heard Sean make a confused groan. “Well, this place has gotten a bit stale. I’ll be seeing you around Copperfield.”

Marvin tried to pull himself back up, his arm burning. “Wait,” he growled.

“Hey, get away from them,” the officer barked, rushing for Anti.

“No, I don’t think so,” Anti grinned, his head almost glitching. “So, buddy, yah got a gun or a TASER? Cause I’m itching to have some fun.”

There was a loud grunt, and everyone, even Anti, looked over to see Jack struggling weekly against the cuffs tethering him to the hospital bed.

In the distraction, the officer grabbed onto Anti, trying to wrestle him onto the ground, and got jolted with visible electricity for his troubles. The officer dropped and convulsed on the ground, screaming in pain. The nurse closest to the door rushed to him.

“Aww, what’s wrong?” Anti smiled at Sean as he walked over to him.

“No,” Marvin panicked, trying to weakly scramble with his good arm for anything to make Anti go away.

“I’ll be with you in a second, Copperfield,” Anti summoned a dagger from almost a violent tear in reality itself and threw it. It perfectly nailed Marvin’s other shoulder. Effectively disabling him. Marvin screamed.

Another dagger got the mannequin Marvin had made, electricity catching it on fire. “And there we go,” Anti’s smile got wider, “get rid of that eyesore.”

With another step, Anti was leaning over Sean, barely out of reach as Sean. “Hello, well, it has been fun, but I’m tired of you. So, let’s have a little fun with you and your friends before I go.”

“Get away from them,” Sean threatened.

“Oh? Puny little human,” Anti cackled, grabbing the Irishman still cuffed to the hospital bed and started to jolt him. As the glitch demon shocked and coursed electricity through him, his whole body glitched the very air around him. “What ye gonna do about it?”

Sean screamed and sudden his whole body seemed to move, as if every part of his body was just vibrating and shaking, rattled by the electricity.

Three things happened almost at the same time, and to Marvin’s perspective they did. Time seemed to slow down as Anti reached for his throat. Sean gave a final tug and the cuffs came free. As quick as he could, Sean hit Anti in the face, what felt like electricity coming off his entire arm, but he didn’t see anything.

The glitch demon recoiled back, mostly in shock, holding the side of his face and just staring at the Irishman who was struggling to get out of the hospital bed and to get in front of Marvin. Adrenaline was coursing through his body, keeping him upright.

“Yer goin’ ta regret that,” Anti warned.

“Get away from him,” Sean told him. “Yer not gonna hurt him again.”

Anti cackled, his body glitching, “What are yeh goin’ ta do? Bleed on me?”

Sean took a nervous step back, almost stepping on Marvin’s leg, Marvin was able to pick himself up enough to lean against Sean’s legs, placing a hand on the back of his leg, and starting to draw something, his hand shaking as he screamed out in pain.

“When I kill you, I’ll enjoy it,” Anti promised.

“If I hit yah once, I can hit ye again,” Sean threatened, just hoping that his body wasn’t nearly as hurt as he thought it was. The police officer seemed to finally be getting up, coughing and holding his arm. Sean hoped it might help get Anti under control, even if he didn’t think whatever Anti was could even be arrested.

Anti just walked over, “I will enjoy tearing you apart.”

Sean winded back for another punch, but when he tried to hit Anti, the glitch just stepped to the side. Giving Sean an amused, chortle.

“Little fly,” Anti chuckled, the glitch demon’s eyes glowing, the iris of his mostly black eyes green. “Somethin’s never change.”

Then, Anti scratched Sean across the chest, making him stumble back as Anti floated above him and gave him a smug look. Sean already felt drained, a mix of the painkillers, his throat, and the fact that he’s been mentally out of it for hours. But his body also felt absolutely wired with adrenaline.

He lifted his arms but Anti froze, jolted by something. His eyes almost crackling with static. “You!” he snarled at Marvin. “What’d yah do ta me?”

Marvin let out a chuckle. “Plan B, thanks fer jumping outta my friend.”

With a harsh scream, Anti began to glitch and distort, screaming as he was trying to reach out for Jackie but burst into static and seeming disappeared.

“Is he dead?” Sean gasped.

“Prolly not,” Marvin coughed. “Should leave us alone fer a while, though,” Marvin slumped over onto the ground. Sean just sat down as two nurses raised over to them.

“Well kid, yah off the hook,” the officer said. “I don’t think the boys are gunna take ghosts as an excuse. Sorry I couldn’ta been ‘a useful back there.”

“No prob,” Sean told him. “I’m tired, can I got ta bed?”

“Try to stay with me a bit longer,” the nurse told him, checking his eyes and all the deep scratches on him. The nurse that had been treating the police officer was now treating Marvin, calling on the radio for back up. Sean’s tied mind losing the voice in all the medical jargon.

“What’dya do back there?” The officer asked. “I lost sight of yah and suddenly yah were in front’a yer friend.”

“I just hit him, think it surprised him,” Sean admitted. “Marv’s got a spellbook or whatever the hell he calls it.”

Looking over, Sean saw the cheap journal Marvin used to store and record his  _ “notes” _ lying all the way across the room. “Give me a sec,” Sean said. “Maybe Marve took some notes on the bastard.”

“Wait, you shouldn’t,” the nurse began but Sean was already up.

He took a couple steps and faster than his brain could process it, Sean had slammed into the opposite wall, knocking him flat on his back. At the sudden loss of air in his lungs, Sean began coughing, trying to roll over but found that the adrenaline in his body was already starting to drain out. “Ugh,” Sean groaned in pain.

The room went dead silent.

Then, the nurse swore. “Did you just?”

“Ugh, everything hurts,” Sean complained, and then passed out.

Next thing Sean process was that he was in a new room, about three doctors in the room and sensors monitoring his pain. But at least, he had enough painkiller not to feel how absolutely destroyed his body probably was.

“Hey, jackaboy,” Marvin greeted, he was sitting next to him, his shoulder and arms bandaged up. “So, quick question, yah have any secret identities I should know about?”

“No, why?” Sean asked, already feeling pretty loopy.

“Good, cause I’m pretty sure some suits have been in here, and they walked away with a lot of yer blood,” Marvin told him. “Mine too.”

“Pretty sure, they can’t do that,” Sean reminded.

“Well they just did,” Marvin told him, “I tried to fight them, but they were about to arrest me if I didn’t comply.”

“Fer what? Doin’ magic without a license?” Sean tried to joke.

“No, cause you went 0 to 15 with just yer feet, before colliding with a wall and took a chunk outta the plaster,” Marvin told him.

“Huh, yah’d think I’d remember that,” Sean thought out loud. “But hey, if I did, I can maybe become a superhero or somthin’. Wouldn’t that be funny?”

“He awake?” a woman’s voice got Sean’s attention.

“An’ drugged ta hell,” Marvin warned.

“Then this won’t take long,” she said and walked over to where Sean could actually see her.

“Hey,” Sean smiled.

“You’re Sean McLoughlin, from Althone, Ireland?” she looked at him, studying him up and down.

“Yeah?” Sean answered. “Who’s askin’? Is this about the wall I broke?”

“We’re more concerned with how the wall broke, than who broke it,” she corrected.

“Shit,” Sean shrugged, immediately regretting it because of how sore he still was, even with the painkillers. “Ow. Why did I do that?”

“Are you still hurt?” she asked.

“Nah, it’s just sore,” Sean correct. “What were we talking about?”

The woman didn’t seem to even be frustrated. “Do you know what happened, Mr. McLoughlin?”

“Nah,” Sean dismissed. “I think there was some glitchy reject video game character, an’ now everythin’ should hurt, but doesn’t cause’a these awesome drugs.”

She looked at Marvin, but Marvin shrugged, “Hey, guy’s as high as a kite, what do ye want from me?”

“Mr. McLoughlin, my name is Agent Laine,” she told him.

“Kay,” Sean smiled.

“We’ll let you get back to sleep,” Sara told him. “I’ll be back.”

“Hopefully with an actually reason to take our blood,” Marvin reminded.

“Only if we find anything out of the ordinary,” she said and left.

“Finally,” Marvin growled.

“She doesn’t seem nice,” Sean commented.

“Alright, you might not remember this, but last night you moved fast, like superhuman fast, and I did actual magic. It was amazing.” Marvin smiled. “Unfortunately the suits figured out.”

Sean just laughed, “Yeah right, an’ I’m a superhero.”

Marvin shrugged, “Sleep it off, I’ll try and keep the suits from locking you in a padded cell.”

“Yer the best, Marv,” Sean told him, and they just kept talking, more joking than anything else until Sean got tired again.

In five days Sean would run through town in a colorful, oversized hoodie and an old Halloween mask he’d find in Marvin’s box of things. In five days, Sean would race around the city, testing out his newfound super speed.

But today there were just two friends in an isolated room, talking and laughing. Both of them enjoying the little bit of peace they had while it lasted.


End file.
